Taxmen unions to observe black day today against pay panel

Mumbai: Taxmen across the country will be observing a "black day" today to protest against some of the "retrograde recommendations" of the seventh pay commission, the Income Tax Employees Federation, Mumbai, said here.

The federation also claimed that other Central government employees will also join them and will be wearing black badges and holding demonstrations outside their offices during the lunch-hour tomorrow.

The federation will be holding a massive demonstration in front of Aayakar Bhavan, the income tax headquarters here, at 3 pm today.

"We are totally disappointed with the recommendations of the seventh pay commission which is the worst-ever after the second pay commission," federation general secretary Ravindran B Nair said in a statement.

He said taxmen were expecting a minimum pay of Rs 26,000 but the pay commission has recommended only Rs 18,000. This amounts to an increase of just Rs 2,250 from the present pay of Rs 15,750 after a period of 10 years.

"After the deductions towards the Central Government Employees Insurance Scheme worth Rs 1,500 and the contribution towards the New Pension Scheme, effectively there will be hardly any increase in the take home salary," Nair said.

In some instances the take home salary will be less than what it is today, he added. On the other hand, a huge rise is given to the Group A officers whereby the ratio between the minimum and the maximum pay level is 1:1.3, he noted.

Existing allowances like festival advance which was beneficial to the low-paid employees have been scrapped.

Changes have also been made to the existing child care leave, he said.